Public consultation over proposal to scrap retained fire crew in Bracknell

Bracknell fire station has two engines, one manned by full-time staff and the other manned by a retained crew

Bracknell fire station currently has two engines, one manned by full-time staff and the other manned by a retained crew

Stanby firefighters in Bracknell could be scrapped under plans to get rid of one of the town’s two fire engines.

On Monday, Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service launched a 12-week public consultation asking people for their views on the plans for the Downshire Way fire station.

Bracknell fire station has two engines, one manned by full-time staff and the other manned by a retained crew.

If the first engine is already at an incident and another call comes in, the standby crews are messaged to get to the station.

Last year the full-time fire engine attended 691 incidents and the retained engine attended five.

Andy Mancey, acting assistant chief fire officer, said: “Since Wokingham became a whole-time fire station, its fire engine can get to most incidents in the Bracknell area more quickly than Bracknell’s on-call fire engine and so Bracknell’s on call fire engine is required less often.

“We have also struggled to recruit on call firefighters in Bracknell and the number of on-call firefighters there has fallen to six – well below the full complement of 13.

“This is unsustainable because it means we cannot rely on the on-call fire engine being available to attend incidents – last year, it was unavailable around 87 per cent of the time.

“This means we had to use fire engines from other stations, particularly the new full time station in Wokingham, although this has not adversely affected our incident response.

“The annual budget allocation for the on-call fire engine and crew at Bracknell is £120,000 and we believe that this money could be used more effectively elsewhere within the service.”

The consultation runs until Sunday, September 21.

Detailed information is available on the RBFRS website at www.rbfrs.co.uk or hard copies may be requested at irmp@rbfrs.co.uk.